Orn’s eyes burned, and he could feel the smoke in his lungs. He stood up walking around the fire, his eyes watering. He coughed a couple times to clear the smoke. Finding a space on the log clear of smoke he dropped the blanket that doubled as his seat and bed roll. As he wa about to take his new seat the breeze shifted sending the smoke into his face again. Orn moved again and muttered about the smoke following him.

A hunter on the other side of the fire laughed. “Orn, do you know what it means when the smoke follows you?”

Orn whipped at his watering eyes and shook his head.

Orn looked up to see the man looking at him seriously. Then in a clear flat voice the hunter said, “It means all your children will be born naked.”

Orn blinked, and it took a moment for what the man said to process. “Wait… what?”

The man spread his arms smiling. “Are you saying I am wrong?”

Orn sighed and shook his head as the other hunters joined in laughing.

The youngest of the hunters gestured to the space next to him. Orn once again threw down his blanket and sat down. The hunter, only a few years older than him, passed him a bowl of the stew that had been cooking over the fire. Orn took it with silence as the older hunters began to reminisce.

The young hunter leaned over to Orn, “they say that to everyone. It is a dumb joke, even they realize it, it just has been around forever.”

“It really has.” Orn’s father said returning to the trees, “he said the same thing to me when I came here. It is just an old hunter’s joke.”

“Sorry, Toln,” the hunter who made the joke said looking up at Orn’s father, “We were trying to make sure you were here, but he was muttering about the smoke following him. The opportunity was too good to pass.”

Orn’s father sighed and nodded “Cannot really argue about it if he asked for it. “

The hunters laughed again.

Turning back to Orn, he smiled, “Your grandfather liked to tell that joke whenever he got the chance. Give it time and you will be telling it too.”

I doubt that. Orn kept the thought to himself and went back to his stew.

Patting him on the back his father continued. “I also think you should know we will arrive early tomorrow, our ancestral home. We only became nobles as the area grew. It shocked everyone when my father’s path was not headman, but knight.”

“Is it that rare to have a path higher than your parents?” Orn managed between bites of stew.

His father nodded, “Very, but the village and surrounding area had prospered. When an area grows a great deal, it can happen. After an area gets large enough, someone is born with the potential and is given a path as a knight. Usually, they swear loyalty to a higher noble in the area. It is something the goddesses do to keep things orderly.”

“You are a count though?” Orn’s brow furrowed.

“The war, it changed a lot of things.” His father said gravely, “During the war, things got bad. It made the king flexible when selecting people for tasks. If you could do something, then you did it regardless of path. There were a lot of spearmen who were farmers with pitchfork skills, and archers who were hunters.”

“What happened?” Orn had only heard that the war ended in a bloody stalemate.

His father shook his head, “I will give you the full details later. But to your question, my father went with the old count to fight the empire. He led the other nobles from the area into battle.”

His father paused with a pained look, and the hunters went silent.

“It was a trap. Only one knight survived. A messenger carried the news and saved the reserves, but it was a near thing. The prince withdrew and rallied everyone willing to fight. They stopped the empire’s advance and winter set in. When the new king realized the nobles from our area were killed in the fighting, he needed someone to be the new lord. Since I was the last noble left, I was chosen.”

“I was out of my depth.” His father shook his head and sighed, “Those first few years were hard. The empire was always probing, and we were barely holding them off here in these woods. At one point the fighting was only a few leagues from the village we are heading for. But we survived, your mother helped me keep it together. The war had become a complete stalemate by the time you were born. Then there was the peace treaty...” he trailed off and emptied his cup.

“I…I must be tired. I did not mean to say all that.” His father’s expression became distant, as he sat in silence for a moment. Then he sighed and standing up added as an afterthought, “Time to get some sleep. Tomorrow will come early.”

As his father abruptly stood, the men around the campfire did the same. Orn was not sure if his father noticed, because his eyes seemed to be watching something far away as he left the fire.